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China’s military build-up could threaten security: US

PHNOM PENH: The region’s top US military commander on Tuesday expressed concern over China’s rapid military build-up, just days after an unprecedented display of Beijing’s firepower during war games with Russia.

“China professes to be advocating a peaceful rise”, said Admiral Timothy J Keating, head of the US Pacific Command, during his first official trip to Cambodia, where he met with senior defense officials. <<<<<<<<>>>>>>>> US chief visit: The United States and China have begun to ease suspicion over their military intentions but uncertainties persist over Beijing’s long-term goals, a senior US military official said on Tuesday.

US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Mullen said after meetings with top Chinese commanders and a visit to a naval training base that he had developed a better grasp of Beijing’s military modernization. “There’s a long way to go, but I’m reassured,” he told reporters during a visit to meet Chinese defense and foreign policy officials. “I’m very encouraged about their commitment to continuing to improve this relationship.”

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization guards China’s back

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), whose six member countries just concluded a summit meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, as well as a joint war game started in China’s Urumqi and ended in the Urals of Russia, is gradually gaining momentum in Central Asia. The SCO member states boast a total area of 30 million sq. km, occupying about three-fifths of the Euro-Asia Continent, and with 1.489 billion people, account for a quarter of the world’s population.

It is far bigger than NATO or the EU. Not yet a mutual defense pact, it is heading that way, as Sino-Russian military ties with the central Asian states deepen. The inter-governmental organization’s working languages are Chinese and Russian.

The presidents of all six member countries gathered in Bishkek on Thursday with leaders from Iran, Pakistan, India and Mongolia as observers to discuss strategic and economic co-operation. During the summit, the group issued a joint statement calling for a collective approach to energy issues that would increase communication between producers, transit countries, and consumers — a move that could threaten U.S. energy interests in the Caspian Sea.

Why has Russia “un-sheathed swords” repeatedly?

On August 17, 14 strategic bombers took to the air from seven airfields simultaneously across Russia. The planes that had scrambled were in the air for 20 hours with support, refueling and in interaction with the navy. President Vladmir Putin promptly announced that his country permanently resumed last Friday (Aug. 17) long-distance patrol flights of strategic bombers, which had been suspended in 1992 after the disintegration of the former Soviet Union. He also appealed to other countries for their understanding.

Expert warns on PRC’s military drills

RISING TENSIONS: The secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies in Taipei said that the next six months will be critical for cross-strait relations
Over the past six months, China has intensified its military exercises in the Taiwan Strait as a subtle threat to Taiwan in advance of next year’s elections and plans for a referendum on UN membership, raising the prospects of heightened cross-strait military tensions through next spring, a leading Taiwan expert said in Washington on Monday.

“The next six months will be a critical period for cross-strait relations,” Andrew Yang , the secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies in Taipei, told a seminar on cross-strait relations sponsored by the Atlantic Council.

Russia warns Czechs over US shield

Putin no longer tries to reason with the spoiled bullies running this country. Moscow and Beijing are building a coalition that out-numbers anything the West could ever imagine. While the US sells arms to anyone with a ‘fistful of dollars’, the East is purchasing advanced weapons technology from anywhere they find it. This A-Bomb-A-Nation has squandered its resources on a loosing proposition to corner a market on fossil energy.

The other side of the world is watching the US waste away … when they’re ready, they will pull the plug and sell billions of US Treasury notes to hamstring our economy. Anyone guess at the long term motive? China and Russia see a delicious opportunity, and Eastern businesses are notorious entrepreneurs. What a prize we would be … are we too weary to see the big picture? Are we blind? Do we even care? Political overload and despondency over a Middle East quagmire have created so much infighting that our attention deficit leaves the US vulnerable. Judeo-Christian-Islamic militant extremists are wasting away defensive resources to the point that anyone could just walk in and declare the US as the western province of a greater empire. Oh yes, there would be a lot of blood, most of it ours. Yes, the unthinkable could happen out of desperate frustration. Like a jealous lover who cries ‘if I can’t have you, then no one can’ just as he shoots the very one they love. Problem is that everyone has nukes …

Posted by bosskitty August 21st, 2007 | Category: Admiral Mike Mullen, Admiral Timothy J Keating, Beijing, Bishkek, Caspian Sea, China, Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, EU, Euro-Asia Continent, India, Iran, military, Mongolia, Pakistan, Politics, Putin, Russian, SCO, security, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Sino-Russian, summit, Taipei, threat, US, US Pacific Command, War Games | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL